Ceriatone HRM100 - any love?

lukedlb

Forum members informed me that an amp I was after was in fact a souped-up version of the hrm 100. I missed out on buying it and now an HRM100 is available. I can't test it. Yes, it's like a British dumble whatever that is. I'm interested to have a modern amp with a different sound to my vintage amps with extras such as fx loop and boosts etc. My pedalboard is diminishing as I rely more and more on a clean or grit sound with my playing providing the damage rather than an od pedal. 
It comes with the c-lator too. 
Anyone have any experience with this gear?

SunDevil

I had one of their 50 waters with 6L6s - perfectly good amp - 10% worse than the 200% more expensive Fuchs I swapped it in for

With EL34s i’d expect an earlier and more mid-focused breakup , but the difference won’t be massive

Some have suggested the Transformers can be a weak point on the Ceriatones, but unless you are planning on running the amp hard, that’s less likely to be an issue

lukedlb

Some advice suggests the resale value is low unless it was built by nick at ceriatone and difficult to sell anyway since it isn't one of the big names. 

lukedlb

The amp I'm interested in had its transformer changed to run a 42 watt amp. 
42?

lukedlb

Resale price? Is a grand too much?

hywelg

Probably. I would think nearer £800 for a Nik built. @ToneControl has one IIRC. Mine is the OTS not the HRM.

ToneControl

I have an HRM100 and a BM50
I had an OTS, it was too rocky for me

HRM is like the cleanest Twin ever, think SRV
BM is like the John Mayer Continuum amp

your profile says you are in Bologna. I went there once, very nice
Also from Italy, Marinblues used to demo loads of Ceriatone Dumbles 7+ years ago






you might want to contact him - he may know who has/had Ceriatones there
he uses the smooth high gain OD settings. I never go there, my HRM is ste like SRV / Robert Cray but bigger and cleaner
The BM50 is also an HRM, but with Blackface voicing, and a John Mayer final tweak. Also excellent clean, the OD can add a subtle bit of grit (which I use), or more if you want

The OTS / HRMs are the most desirable Ceriatone, and tend to go for 67% of new price
Other models are more like 50%

I've had lots of other Ceriatones too, all excellent. I'd say one built by an experienced valve guy would be fine, especially if they were a registered Ceriatone repair centre

ToneControl

this is more like a quiet version of the way I use mine

ToneControl

they can do this too:

lukedlb

@tonecontrol is right; Bologna is a nice place especially for the food!

lukedlb

Good to hear that the hrm is my style. I'm not one for Larry Carlton or the like. 
The amp was modded to a 50 watt by a licensed dealer from ceriatone and then modded further by another tech to get 42 watts with a pot on the front plate for bedroom volume. 

lukedlb

I'll see if I can contact the guy in Italy. 

rico

Not the same kind of flavour but I have a Ceriatone JMP2204 and it sounds immense. I got it off this forum for around £400 chassis only.

SunDevil

At 42 watts for a bedroom mode, you must have a very big house! 

Seriously, the difference in volume between 100w and 42w is about 3dB - or the difference between a G12H and a G12M

ToneControl

lukedlb said:

Good to hear that the hrm is my style. I'm not one for Larry Carlton or the like. 
The amp was modded to a 50 watt by a licensed dealer from ceriatone and then modded further by another tech to get 42 watts with a pot on the front plate for bedroom volume. 

Surely such a mod would undo all the tweaking required to get to such a wonderful sounding amp?
the 50w version is an easy change from 100w, the circuits are all published
I'd revert to 50w or 100w if I were you

I had my bm50 built with a half-power switch, but I never use it, it sucks the tone out a bit